we know that the bureau had been prepping for the visit, complete with location scouted outside, but of course, two officials told our jeff zeleny at the white house, they realize that the timing would be bad for a visit today, that he wouldn't, the president, would not have been well received. and of course, now after this tweet, john, that icy reception seems to be a lot more likely than ever. john? >> all right, jessica schneider for us in washington. thank you so much. we have more breaking news this morning. truth is too much to ask. that's according to the president of the united states. he's justifying the changing stories from the white house on the firing of james comey, stories that turned out to be wrong. he says, as a very active president with lots of things happening, it's not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy. maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all press briefings and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy? and joe johns, the thing that

the white house was saying, things that the press secretary, the deputy press secretary, the senior counsel or kellyanne conway, things they were saying about the firing of james comey, initially, they were not true. >> reporter: right, and the truth of it is -- to use that word -- that whenever you have the president of the united states and his staff saying completely different things on the same issue, it creates questions on the outside of credibility and on the inside it creates questions as to whether the people who work for the president and speak for the president actually are in the loop and have the president's ear and are understanding fully what is going on. one of the great examples of that comes into view when you talk about the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. he, of course, wrote this lengthy letter explaining reasons for the president to fire james comey. at first, the press shop said this is why the president fired

comey, but when the president got into that interview with nbc news, he said he had already made up his mind before he got the letter from rod rosenstein. listen. >> i was going to fire comey, my decision. it was not -- >> you had made the decision before they came into the room. >> i was going to fire comey, regardless of recommendation. >> so, the president took strong and decisive leadership here to put the safety and security of the american people first by accepting the recommendation of the deputy attorney general to remove director comey. >> the white house assertion that rod rosenstein decided on his own, after being confirmed, to review comey's performance? >> absolutely. >> isn't it true that the president had already decided to fire james comey, and he asked the justice department to put together the rationale for that firing? >> no. >> reporter: so, this morning the white house press shop is being very careful. in fact, i did get over and ask them about that tweet from the

president, essentially warning james comey that there better not be tapes, or whatever, of their conversations. i asked him if that was a threat, and the white house, the press shop essentially said, i think this is what it is. i don't think there's anything to add beyond what the president said. so, being very careful this morning after all the contradictions flying over the last 48 hours. >> again, when you hear from the press shop at this point, it is what it is, we have to remember that earlier in the week, joe, it wasn't what it is. joe at the white house, thank you so much. joining me now to discuss this, cnn political director david chalian, dan pfiefer, cnn political commentator who was the communications manager under president barack obama, and alice stewart, cnn political commentator and former communications director for ted cruz, also worked for mike huckabee as well. david chalian, to you, sir. the president says this morning that he's very, very busy, he's a very active president with a lot of things happening. is that a valid justification

for saying things that are not true from the white house? >> well, there's no valid justification for saying things that aren't true from the white house. i can't think of one. i think that completely undermining your staff is certainly not a good way to go about business. i don't know why he thinks that the american people should believe what they hear from his staff anymore if he has said they can't always be accurate when they go out there. so, that's a problem, a real credibility crisis going on there. but then the threat of the fbi director -- i mean, john, this week started with the president firing the man in charge of the organization looking into his campaign's ties with russia. it included a photo op with henry kissinger, and now it ends with a reference to a taping system in the white house that he's using to threaten the fired fbi director. you cannot write this! i mean, you can't make this up! >> no. and again, we're going to talk about the firing of the fbi

director. we're going to wait to do that a little bit later. but you can't get past it. i mean, he threatened the fbi director that he just fired today. you know, how does that help? i know, for instance, alison, you think that firing the fbi director was totally justified. you know, he's well within his rights to do it. legally, he certainly is. but how does it help you republicans who want to take this and move on? how does it help you move on past that? >> well, i personally think feeding into this narrative doesn't help. i think tweeting as he did this morning in what many would see as a threatening manner to comey, unless the president does have the tapes himself, it's not a positive thing. but look, at the end of the day, could they have handled this better? should he have reached out to comey directly? absolutely. should the white house press shop been a little bit more armed with instances of democrats who have been demanding comey's dismissal for quite some time? yes, they should have. but little did they expect the

blowback they would get from democrats on this. but i do think it's really important in this matter. comey should have gone -- he portrayed himself as the last best washington boy scout, and he refused to do the right thing time after time after time after time. he should have gone. all evidence pointed to that. and i do not think it's inconsistent for the president to say he had been thinking about this for some time, this is what he wanted to do, this is what should have been done, and after receiving the letter from the deputy attorney general, that was the final decision, it was the final straw in making him make up his mind. i don't think it's inconsistent for him to say he's been thinking about it for a long time and that was the final straw. >> the problem with that, though, alice, just to be clear, is the president says there was no final straw. he was already done. he had already had as many straws as he wanted before he asked for whatever memos he got there. and just, dan, before i come to you, alice, you know sarah huckabee sanders. obviously, you must know her very, very well. what kind of position does this put her in? you know, she may not have known

that the president had already made up his mind, but what kind of a position does it put her in to go out and say things that were later proven untrue? >> i think the fact -- as i said, i do not think these statements are inconsistent. i think, say if you're going to get a divorce. you think about it for quite some time and finally you decide to make that tough decision. donald trump has been thinking about this tough decision for quite some time, and he finally decided, this is what i needed to hear, i'm making this decision, and that's when he decided to make it public. >> alice, he said regardless of the recommendation. he said regardless of the recommendation. those are the president's words. >> that was -- exactly. he was going to make this decision, and this just solidified his decision. look, at the end of the day, the american people don't care if he made up his mind when he was nominated or over christmas dinner. they are pleased with the fact he made his decision. i truly believe as much as i have concerns about the way it was executed, the american people are pleased with the fact that james comey is no longer in

his position, and we're going to put someone at the head of the fbi that will restore confidence in this important aspect of our government. >> you know, dan pfiefer -- >> yes. >> is the argument over honesty? and i'll let you explain why you're laughing in a moment, but is it argument over honesty what's important, or is the argument over whether or not firing james comey was the right call? is that what's important or are they both important? >> they're both important. let's be clear what happened here. donald trump, by his own admission, said he wanted to fire the fbi director to put the russia investigation behind him. but, so, the white house staff gets together, they realize you can't actually say that publicly. they concoct a totally fake reason. they get rosenstein to write a fake memo coming up with the justification. they put it out. all the circuits make that point. trump decides not to abide by his own lie and actually tells the truth and says why he doesn't -- it puts alice and other people in this terrible position to defend this

indefensible act that was done with the utmost incompetent. it's farcical what's happening here, but it's also dangerous, because we have the president of the united states trying to hand-pick the person who is going to investigate his campaign for working with russia to tilt the election. like, it's really unfathomable and kind of sad that republicans feel an obligation to defend that behavior, whether you like jim comey or not. it is not appropriate for the person who's being investigated to fire the investigator and hire a new one. it just doesn't work that way. >> and again -- >> but -- >> go ahead, alice. >> look, i think, first of all, you're wrong to sit there and accuse me of sitting up here and defending the president's behavior. that's not what i'm doing. what i'm simply saying is that i think it's part of the way they handled this was wrong. but at the same time, it is not inconsistent what he's saying in terms of when he made up his mind and whether or not this last letter from the deputy -- the u.s. attorneys had an impact in him making his decision. the fact is, comey needed to go. he made that difficult decision,

and it's important for people to have confidence in that. the american people do not care about this back and forth as to when the decision was made. they care about making sure that we restore -- and you can laugh all you want, and that's extremely not helping the situation. look at all the democrats who have been crying for comey to be let go for months and months, and now they're up in arms that he's no longer there. that's where the hypocrisy is right there. >> dan? >> well, look, alice, it is -- you are not required by law to defend trump on this. this is an indefensible action. it is shocking to me that republicans, conservative republicans, many of whom stood up to trump, would abide by this. it's just -- imagine what you would be saying if in the middle of the presidential election, president obama had, while comey was investigating hillary, had fired jim comey. articles of impeachment would have been drawn up before the press release could hit the office, so it's okay to criticize trump on this, and it is inconsistent.

trump said he was not waiting for rod rosenstein or the commission. rod rosenstein associates had told the press that he was not the pretext for doing this and is angry that people are putting this on him. so, this is just simply a indefensible place that trump put republicans and he makes it worse every time he pulls out his phone and tweets. let's not forget, he threatened the former fbi director to not publicly disclose what he -- you know, their conversations. we're in a dangerous place here. >> david chalian, you've been waiting very, very patiently. you know, look, this is the end of a remarkable week, david. and i'm not quite sure where it goes next. we know the fbi director has been invited to go talk to the senate intelligence committee behind closed doors. if he does that, i suppose we could learn more about his version about what he was asked to do by the president and not to do. we know rod rosenstein's going to talk to members of congress as well. that will fill in the timeline.

you know, this is not going away anytime soon. if the president wanted to get beyond russia quickly, i'm not sure this was the most effective way to do it. >> oh, my god, not at all, this wasn't the most effective way to do it, john. and yes, we need to hear more from rosenstein, more from comey. i assume we're also going to get a new maybe interim, if not permanent fbi director, and that will tell us a lot. if that person is sort of an unimpeachable character that both republicans and democrats rally around, that may help the president turn the page from this horrendous week for him. but the investigation is clearly not going away. it's only intensifying. and i just think that the president is with each day this week has made this story worse for himself. >> remember, in some cases, it's not just a story. there is an investigation here, too, and there are facts, and they may very welcome out over the next days and weeks and months.

david chalian, dan pfiefer, alice stewart, great to have you with us this morning. have a terrific weekend. >> thanks, john. the president threatening to cancel white house briefing, and as we've been talking about, he is threatening the fbi director that he just fired. we'll have more on what just is a wild morning, and a new player at the center of the controversy. well, the attorney general, jeff sessions. he said he had recused himself from anything to do with russia, but did he in the end? we're going to hear from him in just a few minutes. excuse me a minute... hi dad. no. don't try to get up. hi, i'm julie, a right at home caregiver. and if i'd been caring for tom's dad, i would have noticed some dizziness that could lead to balance issues. that's because i'm trained to report any changes in behavior, no matter how small, so tom could have peace of mind. we'll be right there. we have to go. hey, tom. you should try right at home. they're great for us.

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the breaking news this morning, president trump is threatening the man he just fired, the former fbi director, james comey. he wrote this morning on twitter, "james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" joining me now, steve moore, cnn law enforcement contributor,

retired special agent for the fbi, matt lewis, commentator and columnist for "the daily beast" and page pate. page, i can't believe i have to ask this, but we need to make this clear before we move on. they don't tape things at the white house anymore, where the president had dinner with the former fbi director, correct? and their conversations could not have been recorded either. is that right? >> john, i'm almost certain those conversations weren't recorded. generally, you need to have the permission of both people who are involved in the conversation of consent to record it if you're going to record it and preserve it, and the other person needs to know they're being recorded. what i think is happening here is that donald trump knows very well that there are no types that conversation, and even more importantly, i think he intends to try to insist on executive privilege to keep jim comey from telling his side of the story. so, it puts jim comey in a very difficult position. he may want to come clean. he may want to say, look, i want to tell you exactly what the president and i discussed, but i

can't. it's the same thing sally yates went through before she testified. she went to the white house and said, can i go ahead and discuss this? and they let her do it, but they could assert executive privilege here, leading us to a really big problem, because we won't be able to hear comey's side of the story. >> would there be a compelling legal argument for executive privilege in this case made? >> he could try. and comey being who comey is is going to want to follow the law. that's the one thing i've always said about jim comey, he is not as concerned about the political ramifications as he is following the law. he is a true boy scout. and if he thinks that executive privilege prevents him from responding directly to the president, then i don't think he's going to respond, unless he's required or compelled to by a judicial subpoena. >> though i will say there are some critics of james comey that say that james comey also cares a lot about james comey, and if he feels like his honor is being impinged here, he might desire to go forward with that. stephen moore, aside from that point, when you have the president of the united states threatening the man who was just fired as fbi director, a man that the acting fbi director

just said yesterday still engenders a considerable loyalty within the ranks of the fbi, what does that do to morale within the fbi today? if you're an fbi agent, if you're an investigator on the russia case, on nianything, wha are you supposed to think today? >> in professional football, there is something called bulletin board material, where the team that you're about to play trash talks you and they put it on the bulletin board to motivate the team to go out and beat the team that's talking about you. this is bulletin board material for the fbi. there is very few people threaten fbi agents or fbi directors because there's just no money in it, it's not going work out for him. >> matt lewis, i read everything you say on tv and twitter with extraordinary precision, and i get the sense that you thought, at least in a way, as of last night, the white house and the president had maybe turned the corner a little bit on this, that the worst of the storm was over and they started to give some explanations that were

plausible here in terms of why james comey was fired. but now this morning, with this tirade, what does that do not just to the messaging but to the credibility of the president and the white house here? >> yeah, donald trump doesn't seem -- even when he's doing well -- you know, the other week we had, you know, he was on a's rol -- was on a roll. he had finally passed health care in the house. he obviously had neil gorsuch appointed and confirmed to the supreme court. you could have made an argument at the 100-day mark -- in fact, i did -- that trump had done much better than he was getting credit for, and then he does this. it seems like, you know, he will grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. he has to have drama. he can't let well enough alone. and he can't remain quiet. i think that this is a guy who in many ways is childlike. i think that it's entirely possible that this story is not

as nefarious as people think in terms of the russia angle. it could simply be that donald trump has a fragile ego, demands absolute loyalty, and has no impulse control. and frankly, you could argue that's more dangerous in a president than the notion that they were coordinating with the russians in advance of the election. >> if it is dangerous in either case, matt, is it dangerous enough that republicans on capitol hill will step in and say, enough? do they feel like it's time to say enough? >> well, i think that there's going to be -- that that is a process, obviously. republicans have -- there's something -- there's a benefit to having a republican president who appoints supreme court justices like neil gorsuch and who in some cases does act appropriately, right? so, for example, you know, what they did in syria. a lot of conservatives, a lot of republicans applauded that, a decisive action. so, there's a hesitation to drop this guy completely, to wash

your hands of him completely. but i do think that every time he does this, it's harder and harder to defend the indefensible. if you look at the senators coming out against him, people like jeff flake and ben sass and john mccain, it's not a good sign for a president that already has a lot of problems when you have members of his own party distancing themselves. and i think there is a trump fatigue that is taking place, certainly. >> steve moore, to you. at issue here is this dinner that happened january 27th between the president and the fbi director. the president claims he asked james comey, is he under investigation. he claims that james comey said no. people close to james comey are now saying that comey was asked for loyalty to the president. he would not guarantee that. without being at that dinner, as none of us were, you know, whose version of it do you find more credible at this point? >> well, i find it incredible

than anybody would, that a sitting president would ask the fbi director if he was under investigation, but i believe it happened. there is -- you can say to the president, you're not under investigation, but that doesn't mean that you're not investigating the russians and his name hasn't come up. you can honestly look at him and say, well, you're not under investigation, but that doesn't mean your name's not all through the files. i still think james comey probably wouldn't have answered that question. i wouldn't have answered that question. it's not in the fbi culture to say yes or no, you are or are not under investigation. >> and page, there are questions of legality -- was a law broken? was it, you know, by the letter of the law obstruction of justice to ask that question, if it was asked? and if the answer to that is no, then, you know, does it violate a normal that might be just as important?

>> well, john, i certainly think it violates all sorts of different norms about how you govern yourself as the chief executive of our country, but i don't think we've actually heard enough to conclude that it violates the federal law against obstruction. there are different types of obstruction, but without going through all of the different legal hoops, the bottom line is you have to show that the president influenced, corruptly influenced either a witness or an official proceeding, and that's just difficult to prove with the facts that we have. now, if we find out what actually was said in that meeting, perhaps we can get closer to an actual crime. >> yeah, but we don't think there are any tapes, despite what the president mused on twitter this morning. great to have you all with us. have a great weekend. jeff sessions, the attorney general of the united states, he said he was recusing himself from all matters having to do with russia. did he, in fact, recuse himself? has he issued an ethics violation by his involvement here? we're waiting to hear from him. will he address the matter? that's coming up.

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all right, news this morning affecting a lot of travelers. the united states is considering expanding the laptop ban, expanding it to flights coming from europe. this move is already being blasted by the airline and tourism industry. this would, again, expand a ban that right now covers ten airports in the middle east and africa. cnn aviation correspondent rene marsh has new details on this. rene, what's going on here? >> well, john, all indications are that this is going to happen and it's going to happen soon. it will undoubtedly mean inconvenience for passengers

going from europe to the united states. it will also mean long lines at those international airports. right now, as you mentioned, the ban is in place for flights from ten airports in muslim-majority countries. now the new focus is europe. and while a decision has not been announced yet, we are told that deliberations are still ongoing about whether to institute the ban at select airports in europe or across the board. now, a ban across europe for all u.s.-bound flights could impact more than 350 flights a day. the europe-to-u.s. track is the world's busiest international traffic corridor. delta, united, as well as american airlines, are all of the u.s. carriers that would be impacted the most. they have the most flights flying that route. i'm told in about a week or so, the department of homeland security will announce that it is expanding the ban. of course, the reasoning behind all of this is that intelligence, according to dhs,

suggests that terrorists have perfected their ability to hide explosives in battery components of these electronic devices. the airline industry does not like this idea of a ban altogether. the industry does prioritize safety and security, but they want an alternative, perhaps checking people at the gate for these electronics, but trying to avoid an all-out ban. but again, my sources are telling me it's a no go for them, despite their argument and their pushback, this ban is going to happen, john. one other note to add. we do know that the department of homeland security had a conference call today with several european officials. my source tells me that the purpose of that conversation on that call was to lay out the thinking as to why they want to go ahead to expand this ban. and in an unclassified manner, share with the europeans the intelligence that they have been looking at.

>> all right. it will be interesting to see the justification for that. it is a big, big shift. rene marsh, thank you very, very much. in moments, a colorado mother will walk free from the church where she spent the last 86 days. she says she was avoiding deportation. immigration officials granted jeannette advise gadvise guerraa temporary stay. she was afraid of being separated from her children. she was undocumented. advise g viguerr weinke "time's" most unusually people. his deputy is in the middle of the firestorm surrounding the firing of james comey. any moment now, the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions, will speak. will he address the controversy? stay with us.

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and the now-fired fbi director, james comey. a source tells our jake tapper that the president requested that dinner about a week after the president took office, and jake is reporting that sources close to james comey say the fired director was "taken aback" by a request from the president for a personal assurance or pledge of loyalty, taken aback. the fbi director, we are told, said he could not make that pledge. he did promise to be honest with the president. we're told the president pushed for honest loyalty, which comey said he would agree to. not quite sure the definition of honest loyalty, how that plays in, but it may develop over the coming days and weeks. attorney general jeff sessions is about to speak at an awards ceremony at the justice department. all of this is coming as he faces criticism surrounding his involvement in the firing of fbi director james comey. he's receiving an award for law enforcement. you see him at the podium right now. you may remember that the white house originally said that the president made the move to fire comey on the recommendations of

the attorney general and the deputy attorney general. the president would later say it was his decision to fire the fbi director. still, the problem here is that the attorney general, who, again, is speaking live right now, he promised he would steer clear of any investigation related to russia's involvement in the presidential campaign. all of this is happening as the attorney general sent a new memo, which paves the way for stricter sentencing in criminal cases. that is what he might talk about today. the memo is pushing for prosecutors to charge and pursue the most serious offense they can prove. this is a big shift from the obama administration. it could lead to much stricter and longer sentences for defendants. so, as questions surrounding jeff sessions swirl, my next guest says that president trump's decision to fire james comey was worse than breaking the law. joining me now with norm eisen, former white house ethics czar under president obama. norm, worse than breaking the law. why?

>> john, thanks for having me. breaking the law is bad, but the laws exist for a reason. the underlying ethics of the laws, the values, the principles that animate them. and by attacking the independence of the fbi, and so transparently attempting to limit an investigation that could touch those around him and even the president himself, he's violated the most fundamental principle of american law, that no person is above the law. he's attempted to put himself above the law. that is even worse than breaking the law, which is bad enough. >> it may have a bigger impact, if that is what you're saying, on the united states. but to be clear, are you suggesting there could be a successful prosecution against him for what he has done to james comey this week? >> well, even since the op ed that i authored with professor

laurence tribe of harvard and richard painter, the bush-era ethics czar, that talked about the importance of defending the underlying norms, even in the 24 hours since that appeared, john, there's been new evidence suggest i suggesting that there may have been -- and i want to be very careful because the story is developing -- cnn is reporting on this dinner. but that demand for loyalty, it smacks of obstruction. and then the firing of comey is just the final act. it does raise a very serious question, whether the president's intent was to subvert the investigation. if so, you may be looking at a violation of the federal obstruction of justice statute. we need to evaluate that as it evolves. >> again, and violating norms i think very important. the effect of threatening the fbi director has a serious

impact, probably will seriously affect for a long time the relationship between the fbi and the white house for a long time, perhaps. but the question is, you don't go to jail for violating norms, necessarily. >> no. >> the question is, it's a high bar to successfully prosecute obstruction of justice, because you could say, yes, maybe part of the reason he fired james comey was because he wanted to stop the russia investigation, which the president told us as much yesterday. but if it was also because he was a showboat, if it was because he was a showboat, is that enough? hang on one second. jeff sessions, norm, ambassador here is talking about what he is calling for in criminal prosecutions. let's listen. >> and consistency in our legal system and in the work that we all do. charging and sentencing recommendations are bedrock responsibilities of any prosecutor, and i trust our prosecutors in the field to make good judgments. they deserve to be unhandcuffed and not micromanaged from washington.

rather, they must be permitted to apply the law to the facts of each investigation. let's be clear, we are forcing the laws that congress has pass a pass passed, that is both our fundamental mission and our constitutional duty. going forward, i have empowered our prosecutors to charge and pursue the most serious offense as i believe the law requires, most serious readily provable offense. it means that we are going to meet our responsibility to enforce the law with judgment and fairness. it is just simply the right and moral thing to do. but it is important to note that unlike previous charging memoranda, i have given our prosecutors discretion to avoid sentences that would result in an injustice. this is a key part of president trump's promise to keep america

safe. we are seeing an increase in violent crime in our cities, particularly in baltimore, chicago, memphis and milwaukee, st. louis and many others. the murder rate has surged 10% nationwide, the largest increase in murder since 1968. and we know that drugs and crime go hand in hand. they just do. the facts prove that. so, drug trafficking is an inherently dangerous and violent business. if you want to collect a drug debt, you can't file a lawsuit in court. you collect it with a barrel of a gun. in 2015, more than 52,000 americans died from a drug overdose. that's a stunning number. according to a report by the "new england journal of medicine," the price of heroin is down, its purity is up, and its availability is up. we intend to reverse this trend. we are returning to the

enforcement of the laws as passed by congress, plain and simple. if you are a drug trafficker, we will not look the other way, we will not be willfully blind to your misconduct. we are talking about, for example, a kilogram of heroin. that's 10,000 doses of heroin on the streets. 5 kilograms of cocaine, 10,000 kilograms of marijuana. these are not low-level drug offenders we in the federal courts are focusing on. these are drug dealers, and you drug dealers are going to prison. working with integrity and professionalism, attorneys who implement this policy will meet the high standards required of the department of justice, and together, we will win this fight. once again, i thank our brave men and women in uniform -- >> all right, the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions, announcing what is a very important major shift

for federal law enforcement, announcing that he will push for prosecutors to charge and pursue the most serious offense that they can prove. this could severely change the sentencing procedures in the united states from what it was under former president obama. we're joined by ambassador norm eisen here, a lawyer also, who can help us understand what's going on here. the significance of this change, ambassador? >> well, it is going to lead to more and tougher prosecutions, potentially to tougher sentencings. but john, i couldn't help but be struck by the irony of this. cnn reporting on the one hand that donald trump demanded the loyalty of director comey, demanded the loyalty, an implication not to follow the law, wherever it goes. and then you have the attorney general standing up and saying we're going to tell law enforcement to follow the trail wherever it may lead. and the attorney general himself

promising that he would recuse from the russia investigation and then, apparently under pressure from the president, barging in and saying, i want to fire director comey because now we know the reasons have been discarded one after another. the hypocrisy of it is stunning. >> there are questions about how complete that recusal actually was. again, the announcement from the attorney general just moments ago, they will seek to prosecute the most serious crimes, federal crimes, that they can, which could very well lead to much stricter sentences for many different types of defendants. ambassador eisen, thank you very much for that. >> thanks, john. an interesting day here at cnn, not just because of the news, but because of who is outside our offices. this happened a short time ago. is that the real sean spicer? oh, no. but the real story here worth waiting for. come on back. it's realizing beauty doesn't stop at my chin. roc®'s formula adapts to delicate skin areas. my fine lines here? visibly reduced in 4 weeks.

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♪ for i love feeling pretty and wonderful ♪ >> sean spicer really is just like natalie wood. sean spicer is back, both the real and the "saturday night live" version. melissa mccarthy, share will ben "saturday night live" this weekend. and what was this? oh, my goodness. this was outside our office about an hour and a half ago. that is melissa mccarthy as sean spicer on the portable white house lectern. you saw it here first, folks. you don't have to wait for "saturday night live" to see that. pretty remarkable stuff. all right, that was pretty amazing. in addition to that, as we said, sean spicer will be at the white house for real today after a two-day break in his spokesperson duties. there was some talk he was benched. there was other talk he was serving naval reserve duties at the pentagon. joining me, brian stelter, correspondent and host of "reliable sources" and dina ha

dalgo and cnn.com contributor. it's kind of crazy to see melissa mccarthy outside the office today. i mean, you get a sense that that is what this weekend will be about for them is sean spicer. >> it's crazy/amazing and great for comedy. the entire trump administration's make america laugh again, and that's one of the up sides is melissa mccarthy -- i wonder if she's going from here to honestly go to msnbc or the "new york times." friday's when you pretape things that will generally be used in the show. this could be well part of the cold open. so, america is looking forward to it. it's going to be funny. i can't tell where spicer ends and mccarthy begins anymore. this is insane. >> mccarthy was booked to be the host of this week's "snl" several months ago. it's towards the season finale coming up next weekend, so the timing's perfect for "snl," given that spicer's in the news in a not-so-friendly way this week. >> and again, the press office is in the news in a really unprecedented way, because what they were telling us earlier in the week, it's not true.

it's been proven false by the president himself, again. and this i'm sure will be made fun of this weekend by "saturday night live," but it's a consequence beyond just comedy, you know. and brian stelter, sean spicer after his two-day hiatus, not on the podium, is going back today. what do we know? >> there's been talk that sarah huckabee sanders would be filling in for the week as spicer was at the pentagon doing navy reserve duty. now, that's changed. he will be at the podium this afternoon, 1:30 eastern time, live here on cnn. it's going to be notable to see how spicer answers questions versus sarah huckabee sanders yesterday. this was described by sources as a tryout for sarah. it could be maybe spicer had been benched, that trump was paying close attention to how sanders was doing. yesterday was a tough, tough job for anybody at that podium. today is also. there is no way to escape the reality of what's going on at this white house right now. >> and again, and sometimes it is hard to see where politics, white house, and comedy, you know where one ends and the other begins. and another example of that has to do in this back-and-forth

between the president of the united states and stephen colbert. the president criticizing colbert in an interview with "time" magazine, and what did colbert do with it? he ran like hell with it. let's listen. >> the president of the united states has personally come after me and my show, and there's only one thing to say. [ laughter ] yay! yay! mr. trump, there is a lot you don't understand, but i never thought one of those things would be show business. don't you know i've been trying for a year to get you to say my name? and you were very restrained, admirably restrained, but now you did it. >> so, he's joking, but not really. >> no, this is comedic issue. he's using trump going after it and is doing a reverse trolling of trump. and when trump attacks, people

are scared. when he attacked "vanity fair," issue subscription went up. "snl," ratings went up. i want him to tweet me, dean obeidallah, sirius xm radio. the more he attacks, it's more power. >> i see it both ways, whenever the president attacks a media figure, especially journalist, but even comedians, it's inappropriate. yesterday he also attacked chris cuomo and don lemon from this network and joe scarborough of nbc. they said "these comments are beneath the dignity of the office of president." so, it's funny on one level, i agree with you. his words don't have that much power in some cases, but it's also -- >> if you're going to attack a comedian, you've lost already. you should not be attacking comedians ever. and the media's scared, but comedians, you're going to lose, we're going to use it to improve our careers. >> thank you so much. do not miss "reliable sources." >> along with "snl." >> i think there will be a few things to talk about, just

saying. president trump on twitter this morning, more important than just twitter -- he threatened the fbi director that he just fired. he threatened to cancel all press briefings, and he is defending this morning inaccuracy. stay with us. all finished.

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hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. here's one way to start your friday. if there was bad blood last night between president trump and the former fbi director, james comey, this morning it's become a full on boil. in a tweet this morning, the president said the following -- "james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" no, i am not paraphrasing. yes, those are all his words. the president of the united states publicly threatening the man he fired tuesday for reasons still unknown, honestly, because